Lines Drawn In Blood
by J S Arnold
Summary: "Elena knew he frightened her"
1. The Crimson Line Between Brothers

_**I don't own anything but my words**_

**Lines Drawn In Blood**

Damon heard his brother approaching long before Elena would have any idea. He pulled back from where he had been bent over her and placed a cool finger over her sore lips. He heard Stefan's lightening footfalls as if in slow motion, but his mind was racing too quickly to form a coherent thought. They wouldn't have time to untangle themselves for each other's embraces before...

The door to the apartment Damon had rented for precisely this purpose flung open and crashed against the wall. Before she could think to do anything, Elena found herself standing in a far corner of the room holding the blanket they had been using to cover herself. She watched as Stefan tried to smack Damon on the jaw with his rigid hands, but Damon was too fast.

Stefan lashed out again, but this time his brother was not ready for him. His thoughts were wrapped around the idea that Damon had had his hands on Elena. He ought not to have confessed, Stefan thought wryly, because now nothing stood in his way –not him, not Elena, nor anyone else. If fate could be so cruel, he cared not for his own future. His giant hands had never been his favourite tool for killing, but for this they would have to do.

He threw him across the room as if he were a child sick with playing with the same old toy. He heard the crack of a spine fracturing, but he would not worry. Within moments his brother would be healed and would be capable again of feeling pain. This was all he wanted from him: for him to pay for his most recent crime.

"Once more, brother, once more and I will stop pretending." Damon snarled, wiping his lip with the back of his hand. That last blow hadn't taken him by surprise like the first had, but he had under-estimated Stefan's fury. His brother was enraged at him for tending to Elena's needs, but the girl had had a itch dear Stefan was unable to scratch – was it his fault she came to him to relieve her? He shook his head, mystified at the idea he was being the reasonable one.

Another punch to the side of the head.

Now he roared, his lips peeling back to reveal his razor-sharp fangs, his eyes darkening to pools of onyx. He was much faster than Stefan, naturally, so when he lunged forwards, Damon had him around the neck before he could blink. Those teeth that had seemed so pointed tucked safely behind Damon's lips now cut the thinner skin at Stefan's neck, drawing gushes of blood that he drank greedily.

Stefan felt it first, and he stopped fighting so abruptly that the vampire he had been tackling moments before stopped also. His eyes began to water with regret the moment he raised his crimson face to see what she thought. He felt her disgust emanating from her even across the room, and it sickened him to imagine what repercussions would proceed _this_. He could feel the gore which coated his lips and chin, but there must be much more on his shirt front.

Elena stood just inside the door, her breathing coming quickly, and her eyes wide in horror. The mouth she had kissed, always wanted to kiss, had never before filled her with disgust. When they were in a class together at school, or even alone in the boarding house, she could almost forget that Stefan was not human – and that he hadn't been for quite some time. Now, however, she saw the blood, she noticed the differences, and she saw the monster.

"Oh, God... Oh, God... Oh..." she panted in heaving sighs of breath.

Stefan started towards her, his crimson coated face creased in despair, but Elena knew he frightened her; she had thought, hoped, that he would have forgotten or forgiven her before they saw each other again. He staggered towards her like an animated corpse, half dragging himself and half moving faster than she could back away.

Damon heard his jaw slot back into whatever slot it normally slid into, his dark eyes unable to focus on anything much outside his range of fuzzy vision. He could hear much better, and what he heard caused his stomach to tighten. All the time he was fighting Stefan he should have been protecting Elena. He heard Elena's heavy breathing and the footsteps that got closer and closer.

"Please Stefan, let me explain... it really wasn't that big a..." he heard her begin.

The crunching of glass beneath heavy feet. "I gave you my trust, Elena, I told you that I loved you."

A little squeak and the sounds of shuffling. "I love you too, Stefan," she said, but it sounds a bit forced, "I mean it. Please, just let me explain..."

"There's nothing to explain."

A strangling sound comes from her throat. "_Stefan...Stop..._"

Damon opens his eyes and focuses. He is sitting slumped against a wall, his head is throbbing, and his joints crack with every movement. His muscles burn as he straightens into a standing position against the wall, a sensation he hasn't felt since he was human centuries ago. To tell the truth, he sort of liked the burning and the way it made him feel; he felt his strength returning as his body repaired.

"I know I crossed a line, but really Stefan, what did you expect?" At least he can still wield his bravado against his brother – that was something at least. It hurt apologizing, even for the sake of another, someone he loved. He would apologize to every vampire he had wronged, anything, for her. He allowed a tight smile to grace his lips.

Stefan released Elena but did not move away. He let his own bitter smile come forth as he deliberated what to do next. Damon couldn't move fast enough once he had made his choice. He spun and kicked his knee with enough ferociousness to make them buckle beneath Damon's weight.

When Stefan turned to Elena she drew back. It took a few moments for his feverish brain to register what the simple movement really was. She was cowering from him like a dog does it's mean owner.

"Why, Elena? Why with _him_?"

Because it would be okay with anyone else, Damon surmised, anyone but the brother.

"Maybe she wanted to have fun, maybe even someone who _is_ fun?"

Elena was as pale as a snow queen, her ice-blonde hair framing her drawn features. She was sure she looked as ill as she felt. She had no answers, and so just shrugged. She had never meant, or wanted to take sides in this endless battle between the brothers, but increasingly the crimson coated line between twilight and full, pitch black darkness that was Stefan and Damon had become a palpable reminder that life wasn't perfect.

There would never be dark without light, Damon without Stefan, love without hate, or happiness without regret. It was not that she wouldn't choose between loving either of them, it was that she, like Katherine before her, couldn't make a choice.


	2. Blood And Lies

"Can't you see you're scaring her?"

She heard the words, but Elena was scared, and her eyes kept tightly closed. The question wasn't directed at her, she didn't have to say a word, but silently she agreed. She _was_ scared, but it was not just fear for herself. Damon could just as easily become the object of Stefan's wrath.

Damon hadn't felt rage like this in a long time. Back in the Good Old _human _Days, he would routinely come to the aid of a woman in need, but women these days were opposed to such gallantry, and he had barely felt the need in the last century. Never mind his reasons, Stefan was threatening Elena, and Elena was in need of protection. "What are you thinking, Stefan?" he asked, seething, though he already had an idea. He caught the hand which had moved to snake around Elena's waist like a snake and forced it back. His brother was strong, but no amount of weak blood could make him stronger. It must have embarrassed him to be overpowered so easily.

Instead of answering this question, Stefan asked another. He asked Elena, "Did he force himself on you?" His tone was inquiring, but the answer was already given in his eyes. Damon knew that whatever story she came up with wouldn't be good enough. The question might even have been called rhetorical with the amount of condemnation it contained, and sarcastic humour didn't suit Stefan one bit.

"I can explain, Stefan..." Elena moaned, her throat tight from his strangulation, and she clutched the bruised ring around her neck. How could have things gone so wrong? She had, they both had, been so careful; Stefan finding out had been the last thing they expected. What more could they have done to disguise their passion? So hot was it that being cold to each other the times they weren't alone had been a simple exercise of restraint. Stefan shouldn't have been able to find out.

Stefan was silent, but within him his rage was churning. No words could have described the sensation well enough, only vampire kin could fully understand what the other was feeling, and Damon felt the fire kindling. He had to get Elena out of here before the volcano of molten anger erupted.

She choked on the lie made in the heat of the moment, "I wanted to know what it would feel like to be bitten." The words felt sickeningly sweet within her mouth, because while she had wanted to know how it would feel, his passionate embrace had left her numb. She had had no doubt before that he would be a good kisser, but imagining hadn't done him any justice at all.

Damon's technique was perfection itself. The way his touch made her feel could not be compared to anything else she'd ever experienced before. Stefan was a good kisser, there was no doubt about that, but compared to his brother he barely made her feel a thing. She hated to be so critical, but harsh or not it was true.

"You could have asked me," Stefan said this quietly, but he could not quite keep the incredulity out of his tone. He knew he sounded as if he was whining, but he didn't understand.

"But I couldn't," Elena breathed in a voice barely above a whisper, the lie weighing heavy on her heart, "You said my blood was like ambrosia. You might not have had the strength to stop taking it before I..."

"She asked me for your sake, brother," Damon supplied, interrupting Elena's admission before she could dig herself into an even deeper hole, "I have had more experience with such things – I can better control myself." He knew this truth would hurt Stefan, but this situation could so easily turn south. Because Stefan was a weak vampire, his defence against his animal nature would be weak also. This was the only way to protect her, though it would wound him. He stroked a lock of Elena's hair out of her face and behind her ear.

Stefan hit the apartment door with enough force to make the whole room shudder and quake. Damn Damon for being right. However much he would like _not_ to admit it, he might not have been able to handle taking blood straight from her neck. Just smelling her blood through her skin made saliva flood his mouth, never mind the two crimson punctures on her neck, they made him feel...

"You bit her?"

"Just a bit," Damon admitted airily. He smoothed hair away from her neck and saw that she was still bleeding. He would have to stop that or else there would be none left for later. He smiled and gently licked the red flesh around the wound.

Elena giggled at the feel of his tongue; she'd never expected her neck to be ticklish, but his tongue sent thrills of pleasure through her. Her face must have been showing this because Stefan's back straightened and he growled. The throbbing dissolved and the pin-prick punctures were soon following its example.

Damon was sucking on her flesh to cleanse it when Stefan lunged forwards. Even he was taken by surprise by the sudden, unexpected assault, and was thrown across the room. His fangs had still been buried in Elena's neck, and as he flew he left a line of bloody gore splattered across the wall. He watched each drop make it's inevitable decent towards the earth. The corners of his mouth were sticky with the red stuff and he licked his lips.

Elena lay on her side, her torn and bloody neck against the soft bedding and blood seeping in, Despite all the things she could have been worried about, it was this that concerned her most. She didn't want to have to explain to the hotel cleaning staff why blood covered the sheets. Without anyone to tell her the state of her neck, she still worried what would happen when she left this room.

"I'm going to kill you!" Stefan growled.

Damon sniffed and turned his attention to Elena. He didn't have to have a medical degree to know for certain that if he didn't do something quick he would lose her to death. She was bleeding so much, and the more she bled the more her time ran out.

"You can try Later if you want, but Elena will die sooner than me if we don't get her to a doctor."


	3. Blood and Tears

Stefan started forwards, his intention to lift Elena's dripping body into his arms, but a vice-like grip on his forearm prevented him from getting any closer. Damon was right of course, he was the stronger of the two, and Stefan wouldn't be able to fight him. It didn't seem to matter to Damon that he was the cause of this, and this was out of character.

"Maybe we could take turns?" he asked.

"No," Damon spat, his arms visibly growing tighter around the crimson bundle in his arms, "I will carry her. I will do what needs to be done to ensure she survives. I did this..." He turned his face to sneer at the hotel doorman, who's eyes were wide with alarm when he saw Elena. He was full of anger, fury – self-pity. He hadn't meant to make things worse, but it seemed as though he could do nothing right.

Stefan had never seen Damon cry before, and the sight made a feeling stir inside him. The expression on his face broke his heart; there was so much pain in those dark eyes, enough to fill an ocean. Despite finding them in the position he did, he could not summon much anger at either of them, and he let Damon suffer in piece. Perhaps the most surprising thing was that he himself hadn't shed a tear.

Damon rested his lips on Elena's cheek for a lingering kiss. She felt so cold, so lifeless, and it was all his fault

His car was parked in the front row of the parking lot, and it's shiny lacquer coat stood out among the rest of the cars around it. They managed to scratch the paint of the passenger side as the loaded Elena's immobile form, but the soft leather would have to be destroyed afterwards anyway due to blood.

Damon knew the ride to the nearest hospital would be _fun. _He meant that sarcastically – fun was _not_ sitting in a confined space with a thing in the back seat that smelt like lunch. He would have to open a window or something, maybe even rip off the car door, for some fresh air. The car journey ended up being the longest of his long long life.

When he carried the crimson coated creature into the hospital waiting room chaos ensued. Those who had only a moment before seemed relatively healthy turned a ghostly shade and turned their faces away. It was just as well – the less they saw of this particular patient the better. Something would have to be done about the records.

"Oh, my," a young woman in a nurses uniform exclaimed after coming through the double swinging doors, after probably receiving a frantic phone call from the frantic receptionist, "What happened?"

"_I bit her and drank her blood_," Damon stage-whispered, allowing himself a grim smile.

"She fell." Stefan supplied.

"What on, screws?"

"Something like that," Damon told her, keeping his face straight, "she's a clumsy girl."

The reason for the injury must not have mattered because she waved a hand at the nearest unoccupied bed, "There's a private room she can use, I'll go and find a doctor who can see her right now."

"Thanks." Stefan said, and he followed Damon to the empty room. Once the solid door was closed, he rounded on Damon, his face creased in animal fury. "What the hell are you up to?" he hissed venomously, "And I know it's _something_ because she would never willingly –"

"She'd never willingly _what_, Stefan? Let me touch her? Kiss her? _Love_ her?"

The way he said the word _love_ felt like a knife twisting in Stefan's chest. Somehow, he knew that the _love_ he meant was not the kind that was limited to holding hands. Could Elena really have deceived him about this? Could he believe it? No, he couldn't. "You're lying."

"Am I?" Damon lifted an enquiring eyebrow and then let him smile a smile that he turned off in the next second. "Because I remember the feel of her bare skin against mine, the taste of her blood, the little whimpering sound she makes when I –"

"Stop it!"

"If I recall, it was _you_ who caused this."

"Me!" Stefan was incredulous, "Those weren't _my _teeth planted in her neck!"

"I wasn't hurting her with them, and if you hadn't ripped her away it would have stayed that way."

They both were silent.

"Stop fighting, stop fighting..." came a haunting voice from the bed, Katherine's words.

Both the vampires were at her bedside in the time it took her to blink. Elena wondered at first if it had all been a dream, and the two faces she saw were just visions – memories, a dream. She wanted to touch her neck to enforce this idea, but Damon caught her hand before it had even lifted from her side.


	4. Blood Brothers

"No," Damon rasped harshly, holding her hand with such reverence that for a moment or two they were frozen. It was just her and him, everything and everyone else a distant memory. He ran a thumb over her pale skin as if in apology for his abruptness. He held her hand to his sculpted cheek.

Elena was confused. True everything about that day was a blur, but the desperation in just that single word sent a terrible thrill through her. If he had kept silent, would she feel as sickened as she did now? "Stefan I..." she whispered at last, her voice cracked and her Lapis Lazuli eyes shimmering with the tears she had yet to cry, "Stefan, I can explain..."

He held up a dismissive hand, his eyes laying heavy on his brother, but said nothing. He ought to have known this would happen if the past truly was to repeat itself. Hadn't Katherine loved Damon also? Hadn't she lied to him, too? Would this sorry episode end with _her_ death on his hands as well? He grimaced at the thought that this would also just be a replay of the past.

"I won't fight Stefan," _yet._ He was mentally adding the _yet_ because he knew it would happen sooner or later. His brows drew together in sympathy, but also in confusion at the startled expression on her face. It was as if she had no idea what he was talking about, which was ludicrous. Had he only imagined her speaking the words? He stole a glance at his brother and frowned.

Stefan's attention was turned inwards, and it was as if he had forgotten he wasn't alone. It was likely he would lie to her, anyway, since that was what he was used to doing. She needed truth, and Damon was the only one who would give it to her. Bloody typical, Damon thought irritably.

Elena touched the bandage at her neck for a second, too suddenly to be stopped, and then dropped it immediately. Darkness flooded her eyes and her lips parted. Her eyes slid to Damon, but otherwise she was as still as a marble statue – her thoughts and feelings as impenetrable as stone. Did she remember anything at all?

"I bit you," Damon announced, as casually as he might have said _I love you_.

"_I know that_," she whispered, though it made no difference to how well Stefan would hear it, "_I meant, why does it feel like there's a hole in my neck!" _She probably didn't mean it, that her neck was actually ripped out, but in fact it nearly was.

"Stefan forced me off of you before I could retract my fangs," he put a hand over her wounded neck so gently it might have been a feather's touch, "so I tore out your throat."

"Really?" Elena asked, her brow furrowing now. "Forced, as in how? You're a hell of a lot stronger than him – you should have been able to fight him off!"

A nurse from the corridor outside popped her head in the little room at the sound of Elena's raised voice. She frowned at the two vampires sitting on the edge of the hospital bed. "Are these two young men causing you any trouble, miss Gilbert?" Her voice was high and light, but her eyes spoke volumes of what she really thought. Apparently, she did not approve of this one girl being visited by the two boys.

Damon locked eyes with her and said slowly, making sure to glamour her completely, "Miss Gilbert is fine – in fact, you've already signed her out. You will tell your supervisors that Dr. Edward-Green gave her the all clear." And he did not look away until she looked as if she would pass out.

"Elena, I'm not totally infallible. How was I meant to fight him with my fangs deep in your neck?"

"You could have taken them out." Stefan said bluntly, anger simmering beneath the surface like lava in a volcano ready to erupt.

"_**You**_ could have given me the chance." Damon snapped, the gruffness like the growl from a wolf.

After she had coaxed the two vampires to leave the room Elena began to get dressed in clothes she found hanging off the back of the vinyl armchair beside the bed. She half expected someone to barge into the room, but no one did. The clothes were her's, which meant that Aunt Judith had to know where she was. Why hadn't she come to the hospital too? Surely she would be concerned. She hadn't thought that they would _steal _them from her bedroom.

Behind her the door opened and closed. She was putting in earrings, she couldn't move to turn but she had thought it wouldn't matter and that it would just be Damon or Stefan. She hoped it would be Stefan –she needed to explain and apologise. She waited, but there was no sound, and no movement until a cold hand covered her mouth.

"Stefan! Damon!" she tried to shout, but the sound was muffled and wouldn't carry outside the room. Her heart was racing, and the blood which tore through her veins was warm and sweet.

"Oh, Elena," said a silken voice, his accent English and archaic, "don't you see? There is _nothing_ they can do to help you..."

"Klaus."

"Well done, Elena." came another voice from behind her, this voice more mocking than the first. She thought about screaming, but with the hands on her neck she didn't dare try it.

"Elijah." She felt her heart grow cold. How could they have know about this, about what Damon had done to her, or that she would be here?

"Who do you think told Stefan where to find you?" Klaus took her hair and tucked it behind her ear. He was patient in the way he did this, as if they were old friends and he wasn't being threatening at all. Before she could sense his movement, he ran three long nails across the skin of her throat. The wounds throbbed with the thumping beat of her pulse. "Do you know how easy it would be to tear out your throat?"

Damon stopped walking and looked back. He and Stefan were about a mile from the hospital now, but still he heard it. He heard something. Something like his name. Was it Elena's voice he heard? He couldn't be sure. Stefan shifted his weight – had he heard it too? He turned back to find Stefan gone – _brilliant_.

He raced back to the hospital at top speed, any speed cameras around be damned. He tore through the streets and dodged people who stood in his way like he would trees. Even if he did collide with any of them it did not matter – not really, anyway. All they would see would be a slight shimmer in the air and not anything they could identify later to the human authorities. Because of the glut of blood he had taken from Elena earlier, his speed would be compared to nothing before.

Elijah swapped his weight to his left foot impatiently. They had both taken there own share of blood from Elena, and now it was time to leave. He put a hand on Klaus's shoulder to rouse him from his drunken stupor. "We need to go, brother."

Klaus turned back to his brother briefly before returning to Elena.

She was as pale as a sheet of white paper, her usually golden hair dull and flat. They had both fed on her and now she was almost as drained as a carton of apple juice. Her blood still ran from the wound at her throat but none of the vampires took it. They were as full as ticks with blood, and the power it gave them made them slow to act on anything.

"Delicious," Klaus sighed, licking his lips for emphasis, his fingers tracing patterns over her skin. The hair on her arms rose and prickled with the sweep of his powerful fingers. He smiled when she shivered, "Do you like that, Elena?" he asked.


	5. Blood And Claws

Stefan tore through the halls of the hospital, keeping his speed to what would be considered possible for a human, his breathing coming quickly. He always would hear Elena's voice in his ears, even when they were apart, a trick his memory constantly played on him; For a very long time after he witnessed Katherine perish her voice had also echoed through his mind. He could only hope that Elena wouldn't be dead when he heard her voice again.

"She's not dead, Stefan, so stop this self-pity-parade. I can hear her." Damon snapped, his harsh tone catching the attention of the women standing at the nurses station as they past it. He could hear her, but his mind could not comprehend what she was saying. Why would she be thinking of _them_? He slowed to a stop half-way down the whitened hall and caught Stefan by the arm. "She's not alone." he said.

"We can't just abandon her!" Stefan protested, tugging feebly on his brother's restraining arm.

"Believe me, I know." Damon softly said.

Elena felt herself grow stiff in Elijah's arms as he man-handled her further from her room and through the exit of the hospital. He could have kept her elevated with one finger had he wanted to, but he held her tightly in both arms as if she were as delicate as a china figurine. She could appreciate the strength he possessed if it kept him from dropping her, but she knew there was no way she could escape his clutches. She had to remind herself that even if his hold was weak, she was no match for his vampire-speed.

They said nothing, but both were aware of where they were going. They would take her to a place where the Salvatores' were unlikely to tread: Katherine's tomb. Both agreed that it was a rather fitting place for her doppelgänger to die. It was pitch black in the little alcove when they got there, but their vampiric eyes reflected light like a cats.

Klaus dropped his mock friendly smile as suddenly as if it had turned painful. His expression then turned as dark as thunder clouds and a sinister light filled his eyes. His grin, as he met Elena's deep blue gaze and touched her cheek, was menacing. The two Salvatore brothers were undoubtedly on their way to save her –but why? Why were they so willing to meet death? Her blood tasted different, but how different could she be? She was just a human.

Elena felt the burning sting of two sharp pins the size of knitting needles entering the skin at her neck. Elijah's head was bent over her prone body and his arms were supporting his weight at either side, the effect being that he appeared like an eagle with it's wings smothering it's prey. He was the vulture, the eagle, and dominant over this teen girl. He was a Vampire, and he welcomed the frantic beating of her heart.

"_Please... let me go..._" she moaned as the blood was drawn from her body, her eye-lids growing heavier with every second. She felt so drained, not just of blood but of mind. The longer she stayed in their grasp, the less she felt the need to escape, the more her will-power dissipated. Her time was running out, she could feel it leaving her, like sand in an hour glass. If there were such a timer she could see now, it would be less than half full and losing sand with every second.

"No, I don't think I will, my precious." Klaus replied coldly from her back, blood escaping out from the corners of his mouth as he spoke, his eyes showing nothing but fiendish delight. He clasped her arms to hold her still. His insides were buzzing with the supernatural energy he tasted in her blood, and he knew without considering the alternative that he would never allow her to leave. It did not matter that he had to share; with the amount of times they had both bitten her she would surly live far past her human lifespan.

Elijah's head was on his shoulder and he did not blink. He was listening intently for the disturbance he had sensed moments before. Two energies, twin powers, two vampires coming closer. He was as certain of this as any being could be, but they were working hard to cloak there presence. Whoever approached knew that he and Klaus were here, and whatever their species they weren't human. He did not have to say anything.

"I don't believe this," Klaus growled, the sound quiet and menacing, and he tore at his clothes.

Elijah was struck speechless. He had seen his brother transform, but never so rapidly had he manifested the beast. Even to him it was frightening, and he was more confident than Elena that his brother could control himself. It wasn't natural, this combination of monsters –Vampire and Werewolf, even after all this time. He found that he could relate to how Elena was feeling when she stared in horror.

Damon slipped into hunting mode as if he were donning one of his Armani suits. His transformation was as seamless as a burning sunset, and the sound he made next was as vicious as the most terrifying of carnivores. Rarely did any of his enemies do anything he found insulting, but Klaus had stolen something of his and he was going to get it back.

"Do you think we will surprise them?" Stefan said so softly it was almost silence.

"Of course not," Damon said in a louder voice, his guilt giving away to frustration at last, "they're probably counting the seconds until we arrive." And that truth was a cold, bitter taste in his mouth. Klaus and Elijah would probably have heard them miles off, which meant they probably had something prepared and waiting for them.

From the mouth of one of the caves, he heard voices coming from the darkness. He stopped suddenly and caught Stefan by the shoulder to stop him from running any further. With his eyes he directed Stefan's attention to the sound. Without pause, they entered the cave.

Elena was flat against the rocky wall when the jaws of the hybrid snapped closed around air. Elijah held the monster back enough that she wasn't bitten, but even his strength wasn't going to be enough. She tried to scream, but when she drew in a breath to make a sound it was sickening. The creature's breath was as pungent and vile as a rotting corpse covered in rotting weed. She was still reeling from his almost instantaneous transformation. She closed her eyes tightly and waited for it all to end.

Just as she was sure the hybrid's jaws were going to clench around her outstretched arms, something else took them with just as much force. She kept her eyes tightly closed, but she knew the things that gripped her weren't claws. They were hands, smooth and strong, and at her back there was a lean, hard body. It might have been another rock wall, it was so cold and motionless, but his voice vibrated her whole body through his chest. She opened her eyes only when she smelt the pine trees surrounding her.

She tried to turn around to see her saviour but his arms kept her in one place. Everything was silent but for the swishing of the tree branches above. A long, elegant, finger snaked around to her mouth in a signal for her to be quiet...


End file.
